Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-02-07

speak, and you will be put in many dog
gerel and snubbed by those not worthy
to blacken your oldest shoes. When
the bridge at Ashtabula broke
and let down the most of the carloads of
passengers to instant death Mr.. p. L. Bliss
was seated on one side of the aisle of the
car writing down a Christian song which
he was composing, and on the other side a
group of men were playing cards. Whose
landing place in eternity would you pre-
fer-that of p. p. Bliss, the Gospel singer,
or of the card players?
GREAT COMPLAINT
comes from the theatres about the ladies'
hats because they obstruct the view of the
stage, and lady reporter asked me the
other day what | thought about it, and /
told her that if the idecent pictures of ac-
tresSeS in the show windows of Brooklyn
and New York were accurate pictures ui
what goes on in many of the theaters night
by night, then it would lie we'll il
the ladies' hats were a mile high so
as to completely ObStruct the Wis
ion. If professed Christians 90 to
such places during the week, no
one will ever perSecute them for their
religion, fol they have none, and they are
the Joke of hell. But let them live a con-
secrated and Christian life, and they will
soon run against sneering opposition. For
compromise Christian character an easy
time now, but fer cOnSecrated behavior,
grimace and caricatures. For the body,
thanks to the God of free America, there
90 I'm for
the souls of thousands of the good, in a
ligurative sense, rack and gibbet and
TOrquemada. The symbol of the dOmeS-
tic, and social, and private, and public
suffering of q great multitude OF God dear
children, pillars of smoke.
What IN exciting scene in India, when
during the SepOy rebellion a regiment of
Highlanders came up and found the dead
body of one of General Wheeler's daugh-
tiers, who had beeu insulted and mauled
and slain by the Sepoys. So great
was the wrath against these
murdererS that the Scotch regiment
sat down, and cutting of the hair of
this dead daughter OF General Wheeler,
they divided it among them, and each one
counted the number of the hairs given him,
and each took an oath, which was eXecu
ted, that for each hair of the murdered
daughter they would dash ont the life of
SepOy. But rs we look over
the story of those who in all ages have
suffered for the truth, while we leave ven
gcance to the Lord, let us band together
in one solemn VOW, one tremendous oath,
after having counted the host of the mar
tyrS, that for each one OF those glorious
men and women who died for the truth.
an immortal soul shall live, live with God
and live forever.
But ls | already limited in the first SEN
tence of this sermon, nothing can he more
beautiful than
THE FIGURES OF SMOKE on A CLEAR SKY.
You can sec what you will in the contour
of this volatile vapOr, now enchanted cas-
ties, now troops of horsemen, now banner
ed procession, now winged courers, now a
black angel of wrath under spear of the
turned to an angel of light, and
from horizon TO horizon the air is 4 picture
gallery filled with masterpieces Of which
CiOd is the artist, morning clouds of smoke
born in the sunrise, and evening clouds of
smoke laid in the FURNISHED scpulchrcs of
the sunset.
The beauty of the tranSllgured smoke is
a divine symbol of the beauty of the
Church. The iaireSt ofall the fair is she.
DO not call those prosecutors of whom |
spoke, the Church. They are the para
sites of the Church, not the Church itself
Her mission is to cover the earth with
gladncSS, t0 open all the
prison doors, to balSam all the wounds, to
moss all the giaves, to hurn up the night
in the fireplace of great morning, to
change iron handouts into diamOmded
to turn the whole race around,
and whereas it faced death, commanding
il, Fright about face for Heaven" Ac-
cOrding to the number of the spires
Of the churches in all our cities, towns and
ncighhOrhOOds, are the good homes, the
worldly properties, and the pure morals,
and the happy souls.
Meet me at any depot the world over,
and with my eyes closed take me by the
hand and lead me so that my feet will not
stumble, and without once looking down,
Or looking on the level, take me to some
high roof or tower and let me see the tops
Ot the churches, and will tell you the
of suicides, of arsons, of muir
ders, of thefts According as the churches
are few the crimes are numerous. The
most beautiful organization the world ever
saw or ever will see is the much-maligned
church, the friend OF all good, the foe of
all evil, fair as the moon and clear as the
SUM-"
BEAUTIFUL IN HER AUTHOR,
in her mission, the heroine of the
centuries the bride OF Christ, the queen OF
the nations. There are hundreds of kind
ly institutions, some caring for inebriateS,
some for the crippled, some for the imbe-
cile, some for the misled, some for. the
blind, but the Church is the mother of all
these kindly institutions There are asy-
lums, American, or English, OF Scotch, or
Irish, or French or German, or Italian,
but the Church spreads her mantle over
all these, and will yet spread 1t over all
nations. Her gates are beautiful, her
songs are beautiful, her prayers are beauti-
ful, her convOCatiOnS are beautiful, her
WOrk Is beautiful, All hluSS anu NtlllOl
will vet bow down at her altlrs, all chains
of seridom be shattered against her door
step, all nations will yet follow her leading.
How amiable are thy tabernacles! How
sacred thy altars! How glorious thy audi
tOriums. So graceful, 50 aspiring, so
grand, and rolling on, and rolling up, we
cry out in regard TO her: 'Who is she
that cometh out of the wilderness like pill
lars of smOke?" -
Men may desecrate il, as Cromwell when
he stabbed his cavalry horses in st. Paurs
or break off the image of Christ,
as did the iconOclasts in York Min ter; or
hurl against it august literary antipathies,
rs did GibbOn; or pipe its overthrow, as do
some in every community where pride and
hate and dehauchery are reprOved by the
Ten Commandments which it thunders,
and the Sermon on the Mount which it
breathes. But it will stand As long rs the
earth stands, the same unique, and Won
der-wOrking, and heatihC, and miraculous
thing for which God decreed it. Small
wits tax their brains to say things that
will put her at disadvantage, but many Of
them will send for its coincidence when
dying, and their children will be gathered
up under its benedictions after the parental
curse has been removed.